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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/28570806">beginnings</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Purple64/pseuds/Purple64'>Purple64</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>A year in the life [2]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Batman (Comics), Batman - All Media Types</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Bad Parents Jack and Janet Drake, Family Bonding, Family Feels, Friends to Brothers, Gen, Jason Todd Needs A Hug, No Incest, Tim Drake Needs a Hug</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2021-01-05</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-01-05</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-18 05:19:33</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>2,063</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/28570806</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Purple64/pseuds/Purple64</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Jason usually hates galas but with Tim here, it's not too bad.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Dick Grayson &amp; Jason Todd, Tim Drake &amp; Dick Grayson, Tim Drake &amp; Jason Todd</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>A year in the life [2]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/2088438</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>15</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>308</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>beginnings</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>No really edited, forgive my mistakes.</p><p>Did you all survive the ao3 crash last night?<br/>Just more Jason and Tim bonding.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Jason really hated wearing suits, and the bowtie made it ten times worse. He knew if he reached out to loosen it more, Alfred would give him <em>the look</em> again. It’s like the man had a sixth sense for it, any time he messed with his suit Alfred was there to give him a tut of disproval.</p><p>Thankfully, the man was busy in the back checking on the kitchen staff.</p><p>The gala tonight was in the manor, which means Jason has to make an effort on being social. At least he knows multiple ways to escape the crowd when it gets to be too much.</p><p>He’s just grateful Dick and Bruce are taking the brunt of it, entertaining the adult guests. Unfortunately, that means Jason has to take on the teens and any young kids that came along.</p><p>It wasn’t fun having to play nice with a group of people who think less of you.</p><p>Half the teens in attendance have gotten in arguments with Jason either at school or other events. So most of Jason’s night has been him trying to make small talk with groups of kids that end up ignoring him.</p><p>Jason knows it was over once they made their little cliques in the corner and completely shun him from the conversations. He takes that as his cue to leave the main room.</p><p>He tried this time, so Bruce can’t be too hard on him for choosing to step away for a bit.</p><p>He goes to a near by door that leads to a balcony and pushes it open.</p><p>(He might have pushed it harder than necessary.)</p><p>Better to take his frustrations on a door than the stupid kids inside.</p><p>As soon as he walks out, he takes a moment to close his eyes and take in the fresh air. The moment is ruined when the door makes a smack sound and a painful yelp follows.</p><p>Shit. Jason must of hit someone on the other side. As the door swings back, Jason sees his victim.</p><p>Sitting on the ground is his favorite little sixth grader and mentee, Tim Drake. Poor kid is clutching his nose and Jason has a flashback to their introduction a few weeks ago.</p><p>He hopes hits to the face isn’t becoming a regular thing for Tim.</p><p>“You okay kid?” Jason asks, crouching down in front of Tim. The boy just glares and removes his hands from his nose. Thankfully, there’s no bleeding and Jason doesn’t feel as bad for hitting him.</p><p>“Aren’t you going to say sorry for hitting me?” Tim pouts and takes the hand Jason offers as he stands, lifting Tim up with him.</p><p>“Eh, you’re not bleeding so I don’t think it necessary.” Jason pats Tim on the back and leads them to the railing. “Why you hanging out here anyway?”</p><p>“My parents don’t take me to events like this often, so when I do come, it’s super awkward. I don’t like following them and just standing around, watching the adults talk.”</p><p>Yeah, Jason had to agree that did not sound fun.</p><p>“And I’m not close enough with the other kids, so they don’t really talk to me.”</p><p>Tim sat cross-legged on the ground and leaned against the railing. “It much easier to hang out away from it all until they text me to go home.”</p><p>Jason had to admit, it was a good plan. He was torn now.</p><p>On one hand, this was the exact thing Jason was about to do. On the other hand, Jason was Tim’s mentor. He was supposed to help Tim with things he struggled with. Tim’s biggest struggle was socializing with kids his age.</p><p>Ugh, this mentor thing was lame. Now Jason had to go back to that party and try to play host again. At least he had someone to hang out with now.</p><p>“Come on Timmy, you can hang out with me. I’m not the most popular guy at these things so you don’t have socialize with the other kids as much.”</p><p>Tim squinted, at him searching his face for any lies. “Isn’t it your job to <em>make me</em> try to socialize?” Tim pouted as he made air quotes with his fingers, “I thought I had issues making friends.”</p><p>“Hey, we have the rest of the year for you to work on that. I’m not that much of a jerk that I would force you to talk to the kids out there. They are not people you want to be friends with anyhow.” Jason poked his forehead so he would get rid of the pout.</p><p>Tim covered the spot he poked and let out a yelp. “Hey! What was that for?”</p><p>“For doubting me brat, and besides getting you to just hang around the other kids is enough progress for now.” Tim eyed him distrustfully when Jason offered him a hand to lift him off the ground.</p><p>“No more head pokes today, promise.” Jason even makes cross sign over his heart.</p><p>Tim just rolls his eyes at that and takes Jason’s hand.</p><p>Jason was surprised how light the kid was. The first thing they’re gonna do when they go back in is find food.</p><p>He was sure a simple breeze could blow the kid away.</p><p>Once he helped Tim up, they checked to see if their suits were straightened out and clean. No one wanted to be caught with a messed up suit at these things.</p><p>He had to hand it to the kid, he may be scrawny for an eleven year old, but he had an attitude to boot.</p><p>They’ve been meeting up after school just doing homework and hanging out around campus. He had to admit, his first impression of Tim was wrong.</p><p>The kid wasn’t a shy, bumbling mess once you got to know him. He was snarky and wasn’t afraid to let Jason know his thoughts.</p><p>He even told Jason that he was lame for a high-schooler, just because he liked to spend his free time reading books. Apparently, the kid likes to ride around Gotham on his skateboard and take pictures.</p><p>He even showed Jason a few and some of the angles of his shots had scary implications. He was pretty sure the kid had been sneaking on top of buildings for those pictues.</p><p>Jason was just glad it was during the day. He’d hate to see Timmy skating around Gotham at night.</p><p>“Hey Jason,” Tim called out, pulling Jason from his thoughts. “Why did you come out here anyway?”</p><p>Jason hesitated to answer. Was it sad to say it was because he had no friends his age and the only rich kid he liked so far was three years his junior? Well, he figured the kid knew how unwelcomed he was.</p><p>“Same as you, the people here suck and it’s easier to avoid them. But, you know what? We shouldn’t have to hide out in the corner. We have each other now and I plan on pigging out on fancy food all night.”</p><p>He put an arm around Tim shoulder, “You with me kid?”</p><p>Tim looked at him with an unreadable expression, and finally gave a faint smile. “Yeah sure, can’t let you look even more pathetic eating food all by yourself.”</p><p>Jason placed his free hand over his heart. “Et tu, Timmy? I thought you were my mentee, my protégée? I’m totally cool, I got street cred and everything.”</p><p>“Yeah but, you also like do all the extra credit assignments for fun. And you hang out in the library all the time. If the other kids didn’t know your history, you just be another nerd.”</p><p>Okay, Jason was getting kind of offended. The opinion of a middle-schooler shouldn’t be so harsh. Jason choose to ignore his comment and led them back inside. He ignored the other kids stares and went to food table.</p><p>Tim and Jason spent the rest of the night munching on food and people watching. They even started making up conversations for people based on their facial expressions. Tim was great at making up voices for people, his favorite was when Tim made a woman all over Bruce sound like Squidward.</p><p>Overall, it was a fun night.</p><p>Bumbling Tim did make a brief reappearance when Dick came to check up on Jason and to meet ‘his cute little friend from school’.</p><p>Tim face was super red when he shook Dick’s hand and it turns out, he was in the audience the day Dick’s parents fell.</p><p>Tim even had a photo with Dick and his parents, he promised to bring a copy for Dick too. Dick gave him a big hug and Jason was pretty sure his brother was holding back tears.</p><p>The best part of the night for Jason though, was when Tim got his revenge on the kids making fun of them earlier.</p><p>He offhandedly mentioned to one of the waiters that the kids in the corner seemed very unsteady on their feet. And it seemed like they were getting awfully handsy with each other too.</p><p>It didn’t take long after for word to get around to all the guests about the behavior of the group of kids hanging in the corner. Their extremely embarrassed parents pulled their kids out and headed home not long after.</p><p>Jason wanted to feel bad but he was mostly impressed. Tim was good at playing the innocent child act. He made a mental note to watch out for that in the future.</p><p>The gala seemed to be dying down now and Jason was about ready to call it a night. Tim got a text from his parents a few minutes ago and headed to the coatroom. Jason hoped he didn’t miss saying good-bye.</p><p>He saw Tim near the door with his parents and boy did they not look happy.</p><p>As he approached them, he caught some of the conversation.</p><p>“-an’t believe you almost left without me again. I’m glad someone stopped to talk with you before you left, did you even notice I wasn’t here?”</p><p>“Don’t be so dramatic Timothy. It’s not like you don’t have a means to get home. You have a phone and money for a cab. You’re eleven years old now, we shouldn’t have to baby you.”</p><p>Jason did not like where this conversation was headed and Tim’s downcast look didn’t sit well with him. Tim glanced his way and shook his head when Jason opened his mouth.</p><p>Tim’s parents caught the look and glared at him. Tim’s dad headed out the door and his mom placed a hand on Tim’s shoulder. From the expression on Tim’s face this wasn’t a comfort.</p><p>“Say goodnight to your...<em>friend</em> Timothy,” sneered Tim’s mom, Janet, if Jason remembered correctly.</p><p>It seem like she wasn’t impressed with Jason.</p><p>The way she said friend felt like she wanted to spit at him. Tim just gave him a small wave and mimicked a text with his hands. His mom practically pushed him out the door.</p><p>Jason had fun with him tonight and didn’t want his parents crappy attitude to ruin the boy’s good mood. He was gonna find a bunch of memes to send him and see if he wanted hang out tomorrow.</p><p>They had the whole weekend to find something fun to do. Jason was going to make it his goal to keep Tim smiling the whole time. It looked like the kid might need it.</p><p>Dick came up from behind and ruffled his hair. He took him over to Bruce and told him how Jason looked after the little Drake kid all night. Bruce gave him a proud smile and Jason tried not to blush.</p><p>He just wanted to be the best mentor for the kid and stuck around him for the night.</p><p>He didn’t know why they were making it such a big deal. He hate to say it though, hanging out with Tim made him kinda of wish he had a little brother.</p><p>Maybe Tim was his already, who knows.</p><p>Now, he was starting to see why Dick liked to try and spend time with him so much. Always talking about how he wanted to have a bunch of younger siblings.</p><p>Hmm, he might invite Dick to hang out with him and Tim tomorrow.</p><p>The kid needed more friends anyhow. Plus, Jason might need a few pointers if he started to do the big brother thing.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>I'm sorry I keep hitting you in the face Tim, it's just funny to me.</p><p>Please let me know what you think!</p></blockquote></div></div>
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